


Small Gesture

by ereshai



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Bitty's Valentines 2020 (Check Please!), Getting Together, Gift Giving, M/M, Nervousness, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22618975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ereshai/pseuds/ereshai
Summary: It's Nursey's birthday, which means it's Valentine's Day. Dex should have thought this out a little more.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 15
Kudos: 166
Collections: Bitty's Valentines Collection





	Small Gesture

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day to the-universes-obligation. I hope you like it.

Dex climbed the stairs to the second floor and stopped in front of the door to Nursey’s room. It was closed, which meant either Nursey was doing homework or he wasn’t in the Haus. If he was doing homework, Dex really shouldn’t bother him. Right? Right.

He was still standing there indecisively, turning a wrapped present over and over in his hands, when Ollie and Wicky tromped down the stairs from the attic.

“Yo, Dex,” Ollie said in greeting. Wicky gave him a bro nod and a smile.

“Hey,” Dex said. He dropped his hands, holding the present alongside his leg. He wasn’t trying to hide it, obviously, but maybe they wouldn’t notice it?

“Nursey’s at Annie’s. He had to meet some people from his English class, I think,” Wicky said.

“Oh. Ok. Thanks.”  _ You can go now _ , he silently told them.

“What’s that? Valentine’s Day present?” Ollie asked, nodding at the present he wasn’t trying to hide.

“Birthday,” Dex answered, wishing he was anywhere else. “It’s his birthday.”

“Same thing, with Nursey,” Wicky said. He held up his fist and Ollie bumped it with his own. “Anyway, we’ve got a thing. We gotta get going.”

“See ya, Dex,” Ollie said, and they tromped downstairs.

“Bye,” Dex mumbled. Wicky was right. Nursey loved that his birthday was on Valentine’s Day. It didn’t seem to have the same downside as a Christmas birthday did.

He waited until he heard the front door close before going downstairs. The wrapping on Nursey’s present was too plain for a birthday gift, much less a Valentine’s Day present. Bitty had a red Sharpie in the kitchen; he used it to label the stuff the Haus wasn’t supposed to devour.

Bitty wasn’t in the kitchen, but his gift from Jack was. One large bouquet of roses and fifteen smaller bouquets of just about every flower to be found in a flower shop. When they had been delivered, Bitty had blushed and called Jack to tell him it was ‘too much, you didn’t have to do that, thank you, sweetpea, I love you so much’. Dex knew he secretly loved it. Well, not that secretly. Jack and Bitty were big gesture people. So was Nursey.

And Dex wasn’t.

He sighed and pulled the Sharpie out of the junk drawer. This was so stupid. He drew a big red heart on Nursey’s present anyway. Then he drew a few smaller ones around it, then a few more, until the whole thing was covered in hearts. It would have to be good enough.

The front door opened and Bitty and Chowder entered carrying a couple of grocery bags each.

“Hey Dex,” Chowder said with a cheerful grin. “Bitty’s gonna help me make some heart cookies for Farmer. You wanna help too?”

Bitty set his bags on the counter in between a couple of his bouquets. They both contained butter - a lot of butter. “You’re more than welcome, Dex.”

“No, I…” He trailed off, not wanting to admit that he was in a hurry to give a birthday gift - a  _ Valentine’s _ gift - to Nursey. He was the opposite of a big gesture person; he was a ‘this is my normal, everyday behavior, don’t notice me’ gesture person. No one could know, except Nursey, and he would prefer that Nursey didn’t even acknowledge it. Which was stupid, because the point was for Nursey to like the damn present, to like  _ him _ . “No, thank you. I have to get going.”

“Well, we’re making enough for the rest of the Haus, too, so you and Nursey can have some when you get back.” Bitty smiled innocently, but Dex narrowed his eyes at him.

“Sure. Thanks, Bitty. If I see Nursey I’ll let him know.” Dex said his goodbyes and left in a hurry. Just as the door closed, he heard Chowder’s triumphant ‘Yess’. He was in for it now.

Every single person he saw on the way to Annie’s was holding hands with someone. He was so stupid for trying this on Valentine’s Day. He should have said something sooner. Maybe he should wait. What was he thinking?

All too soon he was standing in front of Annie’s. Not everyone inside was a couple on a date, he reassured himself. There seemed to be a few study groups, and several people were sitting by themselves, including Nursey. Dex took a deep breath. Okay. He was going to do this.

Nursey looked up from his notebook when Dex walked in. He smiled.  _ He’s happy to see me _ , Dex told himself.  _ This is good. And even if he doesn’t want the gift to be a Valentine’s Day gift  _ and _ a birthday present, you’ll still be friends. Friends-ish, like always _ .

This internal monologue carried him to Nursey’s table. Dex hesitated, then sat down across from him.

“Hey man, what’s up?” Nursey immediately noticed the gift, of course. “Yo, Poindexter, did you get little ol’ me a birthday present? You shouldn’t have.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t have,” Dex grumbled as he slid it across the table, his stomach churning. 

“Ooh, hearts. Did you do these yourself?” Nursey teased, but then he stopped and looked between Dex and the present. “This isn’t just a birthday present, is it?” He didn’t wait for Dex to answer, just tore off the paper.

It was a book, nothing special.  _ The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems _ . Nursey didn’t have that exact book, but he had other books of Neruda’s poetry; he probably didn’t really need this one.

“I love Neruda,” Nursey said, staring at it.

“I know.” Of course Dex knew.

“Have you read any of his work?” Nursey wasn’t looking at him, dammit.

“Yeah,” Dex said in a low voice.

“Anything you liked?” Nursey asked casually, and dammit, he should have known, should have memorized the damn poem.

“Um, I don’t know the whole thing. ‘Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because, because, I don’t know how to say it,’ uhh, ‘a day is long and I’ll be waiting for you’. That’s all I remember.” He remembered how it made him feel, though, how it made him think of Nursey. Which was silly because he was the one who’d moved out of their shared room. Love made people stupid.

“Yeah, that’s a good one. ‘Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?’ This isn’t just a birthday gift, is it?” he asked again.

Dex shrugged. “Only if that’s what you want. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“You give me Neruda, you quote a love poem, and I’m not supposed to think it means anything?”

Dex shrugged again, then shook his head.

“You better think it means something, William, because you don’t get to take it back.” Nursey started packing up his books and papers. “C’mon, we have to get ready.”

“For what?”

“We’re going on a date. Tonight. For my birthday. And Valentine’s Day. Let’s go.” Nursey slung his bag on his shoulder and stood up.

“It’s probably too late to get a reservation anywhere,” Dex protested, but he followed Nursey out of Annie’s.

Nursey turned to him abruptly. “I don’t care what we do, just that we do it together. Got it?”

Dex nodded. He leaned forward and kissed Nursey on the cheek. Someone across the street whooped and Dex felt his whole face turn bright red. “Happy birthday, Derek.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Nursey whispered with a smile. He took Dex’s hand and they walked all the way back to the Haus that way.

**Author's Note:**

> Dex quotes "Don't Go Far Off" by Pablo Neruda (and so does Nursey)


End file.
